Label Review.

40 tracks.

Our Overview.

Django Reinhardt, was one of the great musicians of the twentieth century and arguably the greatest guitarist who ever lived who had an important influence on Les Paul, Charlie Christian, B.B. King, Jerry Garcia, Chet Atkins, and many others. Jeff Beck once said: "By far the most astonishing guitar player ever has got to be Django Reinhardt. Django was quite superhuman."  

Handsome, charismatic, childlike, and unpredictable, Reinhardt was a character out of a picaresque novel. Born in a gypsy caravan at a crossroads in Belgium, he was almost killed in a freak fire that burned half of his body and left his left hand twisted into a claw. But with this maimed left hand flying over the frets and his right hand plucking at dizzying speed, Django became Europe's most famous jazz musician, commanding exorbitant fees and spending the money as fast as he made it. He had a long musical partnership with violinist Stéphane Grappelli - the one suave and smooth, the other sharper and more dissonant, together they evolved their novel string jazz ensemble, Quintette du Hot Club de France.

Djangos' career was one full of musical diversity, from his swing-styled Nouveau Quintette, to his big band Django's Music, and his later bebop ensemble, as well as his many compositions, including symphonic pieces influenced by Ravel and Debussy and his unfinished organ mass inspired by Bach. Sadly he died at only 43 of a brain haemorrhage but his influence has never diminished and his work continues to be discovered by younger generations thanks to a constant stream of reissues like this one.

Label Review. 

2019 album. Kscope. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

Russian duo Iamthemorning, comprising of virtuoso classical pianist Gleb Kolyadin and charismatic vocalist Marjana Semkina are releasing their new album ‘The Bell’. An album that follows on from the success of their two studio albums for Kscope (three in total) and their most recent live film ‘Ocean Sounds’. Their dedication to writing forward-thinking and thought-provoking music sees the duo create a new album of impressive depth and playability. 

‘The Bell’ is a modern blend of rock, classical and folk and makes use of 19th Century song cycles – a style established by Schubert – that cohesively tells 10 individual stories. Vocalist Marjana Semkina explains in more detail “The Bell is divided into two parts but each song is a story in its own right, all of them are fuelled by human cruelty and pain caused by it. Cruelty is the central theme of the album – together with all the different ways we respond to it and cope with it. This album is multi-layered and is, in many ways, a journey inwards, taking us inside of a mind of a person suffering from abuse or neglect or open hostility of the society or a specific person.

“Aesthetically, the album is based on themes taken from Victorian England’s art and culture, but more in a way of turning our attention to the fact that at its core, humankind isn’t making much progress in terms of emotional maturity.” The lyrical imagery draws on themes from Victorian England’s art and culture, which had a prevalent fixation with death.

Iamthemorning have built a powerful momentum with a dedicated online and live following. They have been supported by PROG magazine as one of the most important artists in modern progressive music, culminating in winning the Album of the Year award with ‘Lighthouse’ at the Progressive Music Awards 2016. The duo has also headlined London’s prominent stages Bush Hall (with Tim Bowness) and O2 Academy Islington, and their European festival performances include Spain’s Be Prog! My Friend, the UK’s Ramblin’ Man, the Netherland’s Midsummer Prog Festival and Marillion Weekend. In 2018 Gleb played as support for Anathema at Kscope’s 10th-anniversary label concert at the Union Chapel, and Marjana sang with Vincent and Daniel Cavanagh of Anathema for their London show.

'The Bell' was recorded in March 2019 across Russia, the UK and Canada in several studios: Mosfilm in Moscow; Lendoc and Red Wave in St Petersburg; Noatune in London; The Studio at Sunbeams, Penrith; and Union Sound Company in Toronto. With engineering and mastering handled by Vlad Avy.

The artwork, created by Constantine Nagishkin, portrays the once popular ‘coffin bell’ used as an alert system to indicate that a person had been mistakenly buried alive, which was a terrible phobia held by the Victorians. The engineering and mastering were handled by Vlad Avy, and recorded in March 2019 across Russia, the UK and Canada in several studios: Mosfilm in Moscow; Lendoc and Red Wave in St Petersburg; Noatune in London; The Studio at Sunbeams, Penrith; and Union Sound Company in Toronto.

This CD edition of ‘The Bell’ is presented in digi sleeve packaging complete with a booklet. This LP edition of ‘The Bell’ is presented on heavyweight 180gm vinyl in a gatefold sleeve complete with a poster booklet.

Label Review. 

2019 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Oh Sees are the brainchild of John Dwyer from San Francisco, California, who has been infecting music fans ears for the last 20 years with his unique brand of garage / psych rock. There has been slight changes to the band name over the years and they really came to prominence as Thee Oh Sees between 2008-16. This new record is their third as just plain Oh Sees.

First single “Poisoned Stones” sees crunchy guitars and jazzy percussion ground the song in its metal roots, while shrill synths alienate Dwyer’s reality with extraterrestrial textures and meandering drones caked in the mix. Fantastic but simple drum fills abound. The closing track “Henchlock” wigs out for some 20 minutes. At first you may think it is a 70s jam band style take off but then the vocals come in and Dwyer and friends zoom off into their own singular trip. It is definitely worth the ride!

John himself suggests that it is: “For fans of fried prog burn out, squished old-school drool, double drums, lead weight bass, wizard keys (now with poison), old-ass guitar and horrible words with daft meanings. If you don’t like it then don’t listen, bub. Back to the comments section with you! Easy. Over and out.”

Label Review. 

2019 album. Also available on CD. 

Our Overview. 

Returning eight years after their second album ‘Pala’, English Indie Dance trio Friendly Fires are finally back with number three, ‘Inflorescent’. With help from producers and co-producers Mark Ralph, James Ford, and Disclosure, Friendly Fires spent 18 months finishing the LP at a variety of London studios. The band said, “Equally informed by experiencing the here and now, by hanging out and dancing in clubs together as a trio again, it’s a record very much about living in the present; about not being afraid, seizing the moment, casting aside doubts and pursuing the things you love.”

The trio emerged in 2008 signed to XL Recordings who issued their self-titled debut album. The record neatly replicated the energy of their live shows and they made enough of an impression to be nominated for the Mercury Music Prize the following year. Second album ‘Pala’ appeared in 2011 and mixed 80s pop and Ibiza culture into a “blissful collision of euphoria and reflection”. Although the group quickly began work on a follow-up, it seemed inspiration wasn’t forthcoming and the band members worked on other projects until a couple of years ago when they reconvened and new material started to appear in 2018.

If the singles issued so far are anything to go by, starving FF fans have not been disappointed, with the new material picking up where the group left off, retaining their love of 1980s pop, big choruses and current club sounds. A summer smash beckons!

Label Review. 

2019 album. Folk interpretations of Scottish Pop tunes. Also available on CD and CD+

Our Overview. 

Karine Polwart - the award-winning Edinburgh songwriter and folk singer - reimagines a clutch of beloved songs that cut across fifty years of Scottish pop, with her new album ‘Karine Polwart’s Scottish Songbook’. Karin is known for writing music for social change, with lyrics that articulate their values poetically and succinctly, obliquely and persuasively and she is one of the most lyrically striking, and significant, artists. Of her new album, which is an album celebrating 50 years of Scottish pop Karin says “To me, these are songs of resilience and resistance, cries of despair and dreams of something better. They’re pop songs, but also love songs to people and places we all recognise. They totally fill my heart up”.

‘Scottish Songbook’, due for release on August 2, 2019 through Hegri Music. The follow-up to her acclaimed 2018 album ‘Laws Of Motion’, which drew standout reviews, including Mojo Folk Album Of The Year – the new project captures multi-award winning songwriter and musician, theatre maker and published writer Polwart reimagining a clutch of tracks which span over sixty years of Scottish pop. Spawned from Karine’s much-praised 2018 Edinburgh International Festival live show of the same name, ‘Scottish Songbook’ draws together her interpretations of classic tracks by the likes of John Martyn, Chvrches, Strawberry Switchblade, Deacon Blue, Big Country and Biffy Clyro.

Recorded at Chem 19 (where the likes of Franz Ferdinand, King Creosote and Teenage Fanclub have all cut albums), Polwart’s ‘Scottish Songbook’ features regular bandmates Steven Polwart and Inge Thomson, alongside Graeme Smillie (bass and keys), Calum McIntyre (kit and percussion) and Louis Abbott of Admiral Fallow (vocals, guitar & percussion).

Available as a Standard CD and as a Deluxe hardback CD with a 24 page booklet. There’s also a heavyweight 180g limited edition signed gatefold vinyl with six 12” artwork inserts and free download card included.

Label Review.

2019 album. Soul blues.

Our Overview.

Award winning blues musician Billy Price is releasing his new studio album ‘Dog Eat Dog’ produced by Kid Andersen and released on Gulf Coast Records. After the critically acclaimed success and Blues Music Award nomination of his last album ‘Reckoning’, Billy was excited and eager to get back into Greaseland Studio in San Jose, California with producer Kid Andersen. Kid and Billy’s mutual love for the music and commitment to making an original contribution to the soul blues genre is evident in this newcollection.

Kid and Billy assembled a first-class group of musicians on ‘Dog Eat Dog’, which features Price on vocals along with Andersen (guitars and assorted instruments), Alex Pettersen (drums), Jerry Jemmott (bass), Jim Pugh (keys), Eric Spaulding (tenor sax), Jack Sanford (baritone sax), and John Halblieb (trumpet). Andersen added congas to most tracks, covered by Jon Otis (son of the great Johnny Otis) and Vicki Randle (Mavis Staples). Randle also provided background vocals long with Lisa Leuschner Andersen, Charlie Owen, and the Sons of the Soul Revivers gospel group.

‘Dog Eat Dog’ also features guest appearances by Rick Estrin, Alabama Mike, and Mike Zito. Estrin plays harmonica on the title track, which he wrote. A big fan of Alabama Mike, Price was thrilled to share the lead vocals with Mike on “Dog Eat Dog”. Mike Zito also contributed a scorching guitar solo on “All NightLong Caf “. “Billy Price is an outstanding singer and artist. He’s simultaneously steeped in the soul tradition and 100% original and instantly recognisable. He will make you believe anything he sings.” - Christoffer “Kid” Andersen “I was taken and shaken by Billy Price and the Keystone Rhythm Band in the 1970s, when I was playing guitar in Muddy Waters’ band. Billy has been one of my favourite singers, without qualification, ever since.” - Bob Margolin

2016 Blues Music Award Winner Billy Price first attracted national attention during his three-year association with guitarist Roy Buchanan. Price is the vocalist on two of Buchanan's LPs, ‘That's What I'm Here For’ and ‘Live Stock’. Since then, with the Keystone Rhythm Band, the Billy Price Band, and solo projects, Billy Price has recorded and released a total of 15 albums, CDs, and DVDs. In April 2016, he was officially recognised and inducted as a Pittsburgh Rock ’n Roll Legend at an award ceremony. Price’s album ‘This Time for Real’, with the late Chicago soul singer Otis Clay, received a 2016 Blues Music Award in the category of Best Soul Blues Album of 2015. A live recording of the Billy Price Band, Alive and Strange, was released in April 2017. His previous album ‘Reckoning’, was produced by Kid Andersen at Greaseland Studios, was released on June 15, 2018 by Vizztone Label Group and it too has been nominated for a 2019 Blues Music Award in the category of Best Soul Blues Album of 2018.

Label Review. 

2019 album. Jazz. Also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

London. UK based Nérija continue to thrill and engross their audience and they’re are finally releasing their captivating - and much anticipated - new debut album ‘Blume’. Nérija who are a septet of contemporary jazz luminaries, Nubya Garcia (tenor saxophone), Sheila Maurice-Grey (trumpet), Cassie Kinoshi (alto saxophone), Rosie Turton (trombone), Shirley Tetteh (guitar), Lizy Exell (drums) and Rio Kai (bass) are here for all to experience with their new release.

Rooted in friendship, Nérija is a collective whose breakneck shifts in tempo and style rely on a deepunderstanding of mood, temperament and expression, a solid show of trust that extends beyond the usual bonds between musicians.

Recorded in the boat-shaped confines of London’s legendary Soup Studios and produced by Kwes (Solange, Tirzah, Loyle Carner), the overarching goal with Blume was to simply capture the rawness, warmth, joy and the spirit of their relationship and performance. One of the recording aims was to channel the feel of Teo Macero and Stanley Tonkel’s records with Miles Davis during hisColumbia years, thinking ‘forward’ as they did but for this band, capturing the controlled chaos and frame it with a timeless elegance.

‘Blume’ is a truly breath-taking collection of compositions that perfectly encapsulates everything Nérija; vibrant, engaging, infectious and truly current. For just over an hour, they take us on a sprawling wonderful journey, arriving at what is a majestic body of work; their personaland collective experiences and inspirations over the last half decade or so.

Heavyweight double vinyl in gatefold sleeve with digital download card.

Label Review. 

2019 album. Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

When P.P. Arnold arrived in London on 23rd September 1966 to support The Rolling Stones as one of Ike & Tina Turner’s backing singers, The Ikettes, little did she know that her world was about to be turned upside down. The shy but vivacious 19-year-old caught the eye of Mick Jagger, who would persuade her to stay in London and record as a solo artist – ultimately leading to a five-decade career working with everyone from Jagger, the Small Faces, Rod Stewart, Barry Gibb and Eric Clapton, to Nick Drake, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, the KLF, Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene and Primal Scream, to name a few.

Five decades after she became a ‘60s icon with the timeless pop hits ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’ and ‘Angel Of The Morning’ on Rolling Stones manager Andrew Oldham’s ultra-hip Immediate label, soul singer P.P. Arnold is set to release a double-album of stunning new material featuring contributions from, among others, Paul Weller, Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Cradock, The Specials and P.P’s songwriter son, Kodzo.

‘The New Adventures Of P.P. Arnold’ was recorded and produced by life-long P.P. enthusiast, Ocean Colour Scene star and Paul Weller band guitarist Steve Cradock at his Kundalini Studio in Devon – after a 51-year gap in P.P. Arnold’s recording career. The beginnings of the album - spanning classic orchestral soul, sunshine pop, house music, a spinechilling gospel elegy inspired by her daughter’s death, two Paul Weller originals and an epic, edgy 10-minute reading of Bob Dylan’s poem ‘The Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie’.

“It’s great that I’m coming back with this record,” says P.P. “Even now, I’m still finding my way, because the industry changes every decade, and you’re sometimes out of the loop. For me it’s all about faith, meditating, love, praying… try to be ready and don’t give up the fight. That’s the message.”

Label Review.

2019 album. Featuring Nicholas Bullen founder member of Napalm Death. Also available on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

‘No You’ is the blistering and immersively menacing debut album from Rainbow Grave, featuring Nicholas Bullen (founder member of Napalm Death and Scorn) and John Pickering (founder member of Doom and Sore Throat), alongside James Commander and Nathan Warner. The Birmingham based four piece Rainbow Grave are putting a muddy, intense, psychedelic spin on punk and channel the blank despair of negative punk through layers of distorted psychedelic damage: dirty guitars, freeform pedal abuse and effected vocals coagulate around cyclic bass and drum rhythms in repetitive and minimal structures.

After a performance at Fat Out Fest in April 2017, God Unknown Records approached the group to record a split 7” single. Released in July 2018 as part of ‘Volume Three of the God Unknown Singles Series’, Rainbow Grave’s ‘Death Pyramid’ is a crawling mantric blend of heavy bass, psychedelic guitars, robotic vocals and hard drums described as “deeply hewn heaviness” (Shindig) and “congruent with the great scum rock purveyors of the late 80s” (The Wire).

Following the reception of the single, God Unknown invited Rainbow Grave to continue the relationship with the release of the ‘Sex Threat / You Are Nowhere’ 7” single in November 2018.

“Rainbow Grave are a Birmingham quartet whose sludge waffle sound is congruent with the great scum rock purveyors of the late 80s.” The Wire

“... nasty, grinding and hard, it’s a massive negative sound.” Louder Than War

“...a sludgetastic rumbler that out-Melvins The Melvins.” Shindig

Label Review. 

2019 album. Narration by Mick Jones of The Clash. Also available on CD.

Our Overview.

The inspirational American alt-rock, psyche pop, music fusion mixologists, The Flaming Lips are releasing their new album ‘King’s Mouth’ and as always from The Lips it is a deliciously weird and captivating studio album from the band that float in a wonderful sonic bubble all of their own.

‘King’s Mouth’ sees the iconoclastic outfit once again tread uncharted territory. These 12 new originals are threaded together by cinematic narration courtesy of The Clash’s Mick Jones. Additionally, the music parallels front man Wayne Coyne’s immersive art installation of the same name. Though ‘The King’s Mouth’ is rumoured to be a Coyne solo album in all but name and a stop-gap before a further Lips album next year, it finds the band more playful, melodic, cinematic and cohesive than they have since ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’.

Introduced in 2015, the installation has showcased its psychedelic visuals and soundscapes through North America in museums such as Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM, the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD, the Pacific Northwest College of Art Portland, OR and Wayne’s own creative space, The Womb, in Oklahoma City, OK. A true handcrafted marvel, it consists of a giant metallic head that welcomes spectators inside. Once inside of the foam mouth, an LED lightshow begins in tandem with music from the album. Now, the record doubles as the sonic companion to the exhibit and allows fans to experience the aural side at any time.

From their beginnings as Oklahoma outsiders - formed in 1983, when founder and guitarist Wayne Coyne enlisted his vocalist brother Mark and bassist Michael Ivins to start a band. Giving themselves the nonsensical name the Flaming Lips (its origin variously attributed to a porn film, an obscure drug reference, or a dream in which a fiery Virgin Mary plants a kiss on Wayne in the back seat of his car), the band made their live debut at a local transvestite club - to their mid-'90s pop-culture breakthrough to their status as one of the most respected groups of the 21st century, the Lips have rode the musical wave to become one of the more surreal and haphazard career trajectories in pop music.LP includes digital download album.

Label Review. 

Remastered. Sweet Baby James (1970) / Mud Slide Slim And The Blue Horizon (1971) / One Man Dog (1972) / Walking Man (1974) / Gorilla (1975) / In The Pocket (1976). Also available on vinyl. 

Our Overview. 

Between 1970 and 1976, James Taylor released six albums with Warner Bros. Records that became the foundation for his unparalleled career that includes five Grammy Awards, induction into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, and more than 100 million records sold worldwide. Although his biggest hits were interpretations of other people's songs he has penned scores of his own numbers, many of which have been covered by the likes of Willie Nelson, John Denver, & Marianne Faithfull. An accomplished guitarist, he has provided instrumental and vocal accompaniment on numerous records by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, & Steve Winwood. His considerable success might never had happened had he succumbed to the drug problems which plagued him before his musical journey even got off the ground. This was round about the time his debut album came out on The Beatles’ Apple label in 1968. It received some good reviews and led to him signing with Warners.

The first album from the label, ‘Sweet Baby James’ contained the big US hit “Fire And Rain”. The follow-up ‘Mud Slide Slim...’ featured what is probably his best known performance, the Carole King song “You’ve Got A Friend” which got to No.1 in the US and a big hit around the world too. His other big hit was another cover version, Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” which could be found on his 1975 album ‘Gorilla’. Following ‘In The Pocket’ in 1976, Taylor left Warners for Columbia Records, who he stayed with for the next twenty years where he continued to be a major draw on the live circuit and retaining a broad fanbase happy to lap up his latest albums.

Each album in the set has been remastered, a process overseen by Peter Asher, who signed Taylor to the Beatles’ Apple Records label in 1968, worked as his manager for 25 years, and originally produced several of these albums.

Label Review. 

2019 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

British singer-songwriter and guitarist Darren Hayman - founder of indie band Hefner - pens music that always explores location and history and now Darren Hayman releases his 18th solo album, ’12 Astronauts’, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. 12 men have walked on the moon, and ’12 Astronauts’ includes a song for each of them, from Neil Armstrong to Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan (the Apollo 17 astronauts who quibble about who was the last man on the moon, was it the last person to set foot on the moon (Schmitt) or the last person to take his foot off the moon (Cernan)?).  The album itself is curious in its genesis as Darren conceived and started the album back in 2008 and only recently came back to complete it. Some of the vocals are recorded 10 years apart.

Always perfectly capturing the zeitgeist, Darren has always had an interest in space travel since 1977 when he saw Star Wars. Back in 2001 Hefner (Darren Hayman’s previous band) released a single called Alan Bean about the 4th man on the moon (an all new version is included on 12 Astronauts). In 2011 he contributed songs and pictures to Vostok 5, a London exhibition (and compilation album) about people and animals in space (he has also illustrated the cover of ’12 Astronauts’). In March 2014, as part of a year-long residency at Dalston’s Vortex, he played a set of his space-related songs supported by Robin Ince (this included the live debut of a number of tracks from 12 Astronauts). His record label, ‘Belka’, is named for one of the first two dogs to go into earth orbit and return alive, so it should come as no surprise that the ’12 Astronauts’ were in the back of his mind while he researched, wrote and recorded his classics about Thankful Villages, the Essex Witch Trials, Lidos, William Morris and British seaside resorts. 

The songs are works of historical fiction. Although Darren researched heavily he is essentially imagining himself as each astronaut and singing in the first person. The songs are not all set during the Apollo missions. Buzz Aldrin battles with his demons and fights for his marriage. Pete Conrad sympathises with his partner’s fear of an accident in flight. David Scott wonders what happened to his bodyguard on his press tour. Gene Cernan list every object he can think of that was left on the moon. Although the subject is big Darren has always written songs about small things and this album is no different. Darren collects together tiny moments from magnificent lives.'

Label Review. 

2019 album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

‘Sugar Drops’, is the wonderful new release from the Minneapolis based quintet who revive the energy and sound of the hot jazz/blues and flapper sounds of the 30’s: Davina And The Vagabonds. ‘Sugar Drops’ is the first album on Red House Records from the group and marks the first time singer/songwriter/pianist Davina Sowers entered a proper studio to record an album, however they have been creating a stir on the national music scene with their high-energy live shows, quality musicianship, sharp-dressed professionalism and Davina Sowers’s commanding stage presence. 

With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting audiences one show at a time, from Vancouver to Miami and across Europe. The indomitable Davina has been compared to Etta James, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, and Betty Boop, but comparisons don’t suffice: Sowers is a true original.

‘Sugar Drops’ is distillation of bluesy bar room baritone and bravado, graveyard jazz grooves, and noir-ish confessional lyricism backed by boisterous piano, guitar, and strings. Eclectic, engaging and instilled with a deep respect and knowledge for the Great American Songbook, ‘Sugar Drops’ is the actualisation of longstanding intent for Davina. “It represents about 100 years of Americana; I did exactly what I wanted to do,” she says.

The Minneapolis-based artist holed up in Nashville’s Compass Sound Studio with producer (and Compass Records co-founder) Garry West, along with her trumpeter, string arranger and husband, Zack Lozier, and a rotating cast of powerhouse players including Todd Phillips (David Grisman, Robbie Fulks) on bass, Doug Lancio (Patty Griffin, John Hiatt, Tom Jones) on guitar and Reese Wynans (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa) on Hammond B3.

Davina and the band are constantly on the road, touring throughout the world they’ve earned feverish acclaim from the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and more in addition to performing on BBC’s international favourite late-night program Later... with Jools Holland and appearing on PBS’s Bluegrass Underground.

Available on Deluxe CD with bonus tracks and LP.

“... part Bonnie Raitt, part Etta James and a little Amy Winehouse” Star Tribune

“Davina Sowers is a one-of-a-kind performer whose singing... has a sassiness bearing some comparison to that of heart-thumping blues queens Ma Rainey and Ida Cox.” Downbeat

Label Review.

2019 album.

Our Overview.

British artist Emily Mae Winters, has been steadily gaining the acclaim she deserves on the Folk/Americana scene since the release of her debut album ‘Siren Serenade’, produced by award winning guitarist and producer Ben Walker. Now Emily returns with her sophomore album ‘High Romance’ which sees the critics once again reaching for superlatives to describe this fast sing stars rare qualities: "Vibrant and Experimental, sumptuously produced making it clear why Winters is gaining a following on both sides of the Atlantic." Songlines.

Described as having a voice that “stops you in your tracks” and “arresting, enthralling, tantalising” by Folk Radio UK, Emily combines straight-to-the-heart bittersweetness with her own unique passion and drama in performance. Emily Mae Winters’ exquisite songs which sit between the stormy seas of folk and country are influenced by artists including Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Sarah Jarosz. 

To quote Emily: “In one of my favourite poems by the English romantic poet John Keats: ‘When I Have Fears’, he looks up at the night sky as his dying day approaches and sees ‘Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance’. He worries that he and his pen will not live long enough to trace them all. I’ve always been a ‘hopeless romantic’ but I think the older I get, the more the meaning of that phrase changes for me.”

'High Romance' was produced by award winning Americana producer Matt Ingram at Urchin Studios (Florence and the Machine, Lucy Rose, Laura Marling) The new album was recorded in December 2018 with a live band featuring BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winning guitarist Ben Walker, double bassist John Parker (Kate Rusby, Jackie Oates, Megson) and Matt Ingram (Drums/Percussion Piano) and mastered at Metropolis Studios.



Emily’s self-penned debut album ’Siren Serenade’ was released to critical acclaim, picking up plays on U.K. radio including the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show, BBC Good Morning Sunday as well as international folk and Americana radio in the U.S. Winters received a scholarship to showcase at Folk Alliance International in the U.S. The album was then selected in the International Americana Music Show’s top ten albums and featured in American Song writing Magazine’s reviews of the month as well as being shortlisted for the Fatea Debut Album of the Year and winning the Best Debut Album of the Year in the Laurel Canyon Music Awards.

Label Review. 

2019 debut album also available on CD.

Our Overview. 

25 year old Londoner, singer-songwriter Freya Ridings is releasing her shiny new eponymous debut album, hot on the heels of her acclaimed 2018 single “Lost Without You” which hit the UK top 10 and has racked up nearly 200 million Spotify streams. Freya’s extraordinary, vibrato-rich voice is a gift to the listener and that’s undoubtedly one of the most powerful voices of her generation. Tthe female ‘voice’ of 2019, which has draw comparisons to the heady talents of Adele and Kate Bush. 

The album as a whole explores themes of doubt, pain, regret and vulnerability within songs of alchemical incandescence. Freya wrote all of the eleven songs that feature on the album which underpins her world class credentials as a songwriter. In an era in which hits are inevitably written by committee, “Lost Without You” saw Freya become the first female artist to have an entirely self-written Top 10 hit since Kate Bush’s “Running UpThat Hill” returned to the charts in 2012.

Studying at the Brit school in Croydon, Ridings spent four years playing open-mic nights across the capital before getting her break in the industry. Now she is touring so often - including a US tour last year - that she has not been able to officially move out of her parents’ “bohemian” north London home.

Freya - who describes herself as a “piano and song writing nerd” who spent summers practising rather than hanging out t festivals, is delighted to be playing Glastonbury and Wilderness, Latitude and the Isle of Wight festivals this summer. She said: “I’ve never been to Glastonbury before… It’s the first time I’m going to so many of these festivals, I’ve heard such legendary things from so many people. These are the festivals I wasn’t cool enough to go to as a teen, and now I get to actually play at them and it’s very, very surreal.

"I was the really uncool girl at school who wrote piano ballads, and now I’m playing Glastonbury. It makes absolutely no sense.” Oh it does Freya! We will watch your career grow and bloom! “

"The new Adele......Freya Ridings is the voice of 2019.” The Times.

“This singer brings classical precision and raw emotion to celestial pop.” GQ. 

“An extraordinary talent.” Sunday Times Culture.

“The most exciting rising talent in UK music......she’s a superstar in waiting.” The Sun.

Label Review. 

A Maid of Constant Sorrow (1961) Golden Apples of the Sun (1962) Judy Collins 3 (1963) Concert (1964) Fifth Album (1965) In My Life (1966) Wildflowers (1967) Who Knows Where the Time Goes (1968). Edsel. 

Our Overview. 

This collection gathers together the eight albums the American singer and songwriter Judy Collins recorded during the sixties. They were all made for Jac Holzman’s farsighted Elektra Records, a label she helped to shape in her first decade as a recording artist through her adventurous spirit. Her forte was imaginatively interpreting songs by her peers and, later with her own songwriting which first graced her seventh album ‘Wildflowers’ in 1967. That album also gave her a first major hit single in “Both Sides Now”, reaching No. 8 in the Billboard charts, which helped launch the career of that songs writer Joni Mitchell, who had no contract at the time.

Judy had by then established herself as an impeccable interpreter of the outstanding new songs by a welter of songwriters springing up in the early sixties, covering songs by Phil Ochs, Eric Anderson, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Paxton, Randy Newman, Jacques Brel, Donovan, Sandy Denny and Bob Dylan. Most significantly among the artists whose careers she helped develop, her 1966 album ‘In My Life’ is now celebrated as the first record to feature songs by Leonard Cohen.

The artwork has been put together by acknowledged Elektra collector Phil Smee. The albums are in CD sized facsimiles of the original sleeves, along with a booklet that compiles the credits and liner notes from those sleeves plus a note by Mick Houghton, author of “Becoming Elektra: The True Story of Jac Holzman’s Visionary Record Label”.